Improvement -in apparatus for excavating privy-vaults



' UNITESrA'rEs AZEL AMEs, Jn., `or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATus Fon EXCAvATrNe Pmvv-VAULTS.

Specification forming part 'of Letters Patent No. 192,212, dated June 19, 18777; application filed Api-i114, 1877. f

. To all whom it may concern:

and valuable Improvement in Apparatus for Excavating Privy-Vaults; and I .do hereby 1 declare that the following isa full, clear,`and

exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this speciiication, and to the letters and gures of reference marked thereon.

Eigure 1 of the drawings represents my im-- provements complete as applied to the receiving-tank of an excavating apparatus. Fig. 2 shows a section of the flap-valve, and Fig. 3 gives a bottom view of the same. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the slide-valve gate, and Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional views thereof. Fj g. 7 is a sectional detail view of thesame.

My invention relates to apparatus for excavating privy-vaults; and it consists in a llapvalved foot-pipe at the vault end of the suction-hose; also,in slide-valve gates at the sides of the pump-receiver, at top and bottom, and in the construction and combination of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the annexed drawings, A represents the ordinary pump-receiver, with hose B leading from the pump into the top thereof. In the end of the hose B, within the receiver A, is a lloatvalve, C, which rises with the fluid in the receiver and closes the air-pipe. D is the hose leading from the receiver to` the vault to be emptied, and E is the hose leading from the receiver to the tank or barrels for carrying off the contents of the vault. l

At the vault end ot' -thepipe or hose D is secured a cast-iron foot-pipe, G, having a cap, H, fastened to its lower end` in any suitable manner. On the inner surface of said cap is hinged a leather valve, I, opening upward, and weighted so as to fall by its own weight.`

The receiver end of the hose D is connected to the side of the receiver at the top by a counection formed of a valve-box, J, having suitable collars or couplings on both sides, one to be fastened to the receiver, and the hose to be coupled to the other.

Within the valve-box J is a slide-valve, L,

provided with lugs a, as shown in Figj7, for

IL is secured a spring, b, the ends of jwhich bearagainstjnclines d d within the valve-box, said inclines being so arranged that the pressure ot' the spring will gradually increase in closing theva-lve, and have its greatest tension when the valve is entirely closed.

The pipe or hose E is connected to the side of the receiver at the bottom, and has a similar valve-box and slide-valve at the junction. In practice these two valves will be so located that theopcrator can manipulate them. at the same time, and not on opposite sides of the receiver, as represented in Fig. l. f

The air being exhausted from the receiver through the air-pipe B, and the slide-valve "'n the pipe E closed, the material from the vault Hows into the receiver through the suction-pipe D, and when thev receiver is full the material lifts the float-valve (l up, so as to shut ott' the pump. The'upper valve L is then shut down and the lower valve opened, and compressed` air forced into the top ofthe barrel-through the air-pipe B, whereby the material is forced out through the lower opening andthe hose E into the tank or-barrels.

^ The Weight of the material being added to the force of the compressed air, the rapidity and facility of the passage of -the material are greatly aided.

The attachment of the plain gate-valve to` the side of the pump-receiver at the to'p'removes all danger of clogging, as it leaves 4a straight run in from the vault, The attachment of Va similar gate-valve atthebottom ot' the pump-receiver not only removes danger of clogging, but also enables tbematerial to pass out'directly, avoiding the use of a Siphon-tube `and direct perpendicular lift, as in apparatus now'i'n use, and the Weight of the material aiding the expelling force of the compressed air, and in the same direction withit. It enables any article no larger than the inner caliber of the suction-hose and no longer than the inner diameter of the pump-receiver to fpass through the hose from the vault into the receiver. i

The addition of the valved foot-pipe G to the vault end ot' the suction-hose secures av great saving of labor, time, and expense; as heretofore, when the pump-receiver was lled and the vacuum cut off. the contents of the suction-hose, of course, immediately ran back to the vault, and each repeated lling of the pumpreceiver necessitated the recreation of a vacuum, not only in the receiver, but also in the hose to the vault, and the hoset'ul had to be lifted even as many times as the receiver was illed. The ap-valve I retains the contents of the hose7 and a vacuum is therefore required only in the receiver. A great increase of speed, economy, and ease in the accomplishment of vthe work is effected.

The slide-valve boxes J, instead of' being attached directly and permanently to the side of the pump receiver, may be attached by means of a coupling, one part of which is then permanently secured to the pump-receiver, and the other portion forming a projection on the valve-box.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an apparatus for cleaning privy-vaults, 85e., a foot-pipe provided with aflap-valve, and attachedto the vault end ofthe suction-hose, for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.

2. In an apparatus for cleaning privy-vaults, 85e., a pump-receiver having the pump-hose B at the top thereof, the suction-hose D connected to the side of thc receiver at the top, and the tank-hose E attached to the side ot' the receiver at the bottom, substantially as shown, and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the above I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two Witnesses.

Aznn AMES, JR.

Witnesses: L U. H. MOEWEN, EUGENE W. JOHNSON. 

